Cruel late twist puts Swans back in drop zone... but there are reasons to keep faith
It could have been one of the club’s greatest night’s in the Premier League. But it became a night that served as a stark reminder of the harshness of the fight to stay in it.
Instead of a night when once more, at long last, Swansea would hear the cockerel cry, the sound of 20,000 ‘if onlys’ entered the air as somehow Paul Clement’s men found themselves back in the relegation zone when they had been clear of it and celebrating with 88 minutes gone.
Wayne Routledge’s goal 11 minutes in had looked as though it would hand Swansea a victory that, given the context of Tottenham’s title challenge and the relegation struggles faced in South Wales, would arguably eclipse any of the other results gained in the club’s six-season stay in the modern top-flight.
It was not to be. As Dele Alli broke Swansea resistance and Swansea hearts with two minutes to go, so Son Heung-min and Christian Eriksen added to the cruel hurt.
Plenty were quick to talk of the turnaround keeping the title race alive as Spurs continue to hunt Chelsea, though you would not find many in South Wales. Our only concern is whether there is life remaining in Swansea’s survival fight.
On the evidence of this performance, one of heart, discipline, determination and quality, there should be. There should be more than enough in this team – despite Hull’s win at Middlesbrough forcing Swansea into the bottom three – to gain the wins needed in these final seven games to give Swansea hope of repeating their great Premier League nights.
But this was a night that reminded that it is not always that fair and Swansea have left themselves with so much to do. They will not be relegated because of nights like these, but of games such as the 5-0 drubbing at White Hart Lane.
Yet given the effort, physically and mentally put into this, can Swansea recover? It was hard not to look at them at the end following the injurytime blows and see a team devastated.
That is now Clement’s challenge as they face a West Ham team very much in this fight. Can they recover? They have no option but to.
They must harness the positives, the hostility of the crowd as they fed off the upset on the cards. The discipline in the shape, the performances that excelled individually and collectively.
Against sides weaker than Tottenham – of which there are many – they will not suffer blows like this.
They could do with Fernando Llorente back, even if Jordan Ayew’s hard running, including teeing up Routledge, showed that it is better to focus on the players ready to fight on.
They had plenty of them on this night that deserved more, even if it did start worryingly.
Whereas there had been expectancy against Middlesbrough, here was a feeling of anxiety that drooped into dread when Llorente’s absence was confirmed.
And, as both Alfie Mawson and Leroy Fer gifted possession to Tottenham in successive mistakes in the opening minutes, the speed of Tottenham’s attacks only spread fear like a wildfire through the stands.
Fer’s mistake had been wasted by the trio of golden-shirted Spurs, Mawson’s blushes spared by a superb block by Federico Fernandez on Christian Eriksen.